Masterton spins a tale of horror that moves from the U.S. to Poland, and probably begins in ancient times. His style to deliver the proper atmosphere is to understate the events and feelings.
The narrative opens when a troop of Boy Scouts and their leaders commit suicide in a forest area and leave no clue as to what motivated them to take their own lives. Jack Wallace’s son Sparky was friends with one of the boys that did away with himself and he wants to travel to the scene to come to grips with what happened.
Sparky is stricken with a degree of autism, but has a knack for forecasting the future by reading the alignments of the stars and planets. His appeals to his father draws Jack into an investigation of the reasons for the mass suicides and causes both to undertake a journey to Poland.
It was in a forest during the second world war that Jack’s grandfather killed himself while fighting the Nazis and is believed to be due to the same cause that occurred with the Boy Scouts. While in Poland Jack and Sparky believe they actually see the evil that caused the suicides of both their grandfather and the Boy Scout troop. They return to the states and begin a full investigation finding that contact with the evil that is the cause of the suicides may be a worldwide phenomenon and have been present in the world since the beginning of time.
For those readers that enjoy a well done horror story they have one with Forest Ghost that will not be forgotten in a long time.
4/14 Paul Lane
FOREST GHOST by Graham Masterton. Severn House Publishers; First World Publication edition (April 1, 2014). ISBN 978-0727883445. 256p.
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